Can Dogs See Their Own Farts?: The Surprising Truth Behind this Viral Story

Well…can they?! This question has been making the rounds since news of a dog fart study at the Rochester Institute of Technology broke. Researchers were said to have trapped dog and human farts in jars, and then measured dogs’ brain activity in response to smelling them. The story was picked up by a few popular blogs and shared widely.

However, the study in question is fake. We knew it sounded too good to be true! It was published on a discredited, now-defunct fake news site called Iflscience.org. For starters, if you dig into the details of the supposed study, you’ll find that the researchers do not exist—nor does the journal that purportedly published their “findings.” Snopes explains the hoax in this article, which debunks another of that site’s stories.

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Note: the site isn’t to be confused with the popular science outlet Iflscience.com. The fake news site was deliberately using that domain to mislead the public.

So, no, dogs can’t see their own farts. But they CAN see things we can’t, and a dog’s sense of smell is definitely a kind of canine superpower.

Researchers really did study dog farts

Dogs can’t see their own farts, and that study never occurred. But this U.K.-based study really did happen, and involved a special “fart suit” for the subject dogs. Nope, we’re not making this up. If you’re looking for a fun fart-related study to share, that one just might be it.